Mom Of 5 Is Left With Coin-Sized Hole In Her Nose When ‘Glasses Mark’ Ends Up Being Skin Cancer

Caralynn is a writer, native New Yorker, TV enthusiast, and dog mom to Hobbes.

When Narelle Krikhoff noticed a small mark on her nose, she didn’t think it was anything serious.

The mom of five from Brisbane, Australia, initially believed the bump had been caused by her glasses. According to Metro, Narelle (who works as a personal trainer) thought the mark had been caused by her glasses rubbing against her nose in the gym.

“Because I wear glasses all of the time, and due to the position of the lump, I assumed it was just a mark from where they’d rubbed,” she explained.

Narelle had first spotted the mark on her face while on vacation in May 2017. When she first asked her doctor about it, they agreed it was “likely just a scratch.”

“The mark eventually went, but the lump was still there on my face, and my skin didn’t feel normal. I had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right, so I decided to go to a specialist skin doctor to see what they thought,” she continued.

The specialist looked at Narelle’s mark and immediately ordered a biopsy. Three days later, the Australian mom found out that the lump was cancerous: basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer. A week after that, she was in surgery to have the growth removed, a procedure that left her with a coin-sized hole in her nose and required over 20 stitches to close up.

“For the past 15 years, I have had the healthiest life I possibly could, and no one in my family has cancer. I truly thought that I was invincible, but this just shows cancer can get anyone,” the 53-year-old said, according to the Daily Mail. “At first, when my cancer was cut out, I felt so self-conscious and didn’t think I would ever leave the house again. But now, my scar is almost completely gone, and I’m just happy that I had the surgery so quickly, as it could have been a lot worse.”